#“The Terrorist Fascist | War Criminal | Apartheid | Liar | Conspirator | The Illegal Regime of the Zionist 🐖 🐷 🐖 🐗 Isra-hell”

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Why Are America’s Elite Universities So Afraid Of This Scholar’s Paper?

The Columbia Law Review Website Was Temporarily Shut Down After It Published a Palestinian Human Rights Lawyer’s Article Proposing a New Way to Understand Palestinian Life Under “The Terrorist, Fascist, War Criminal, Apartheid, Liar, Conspirator and the Zionist Isra-helli 🐖 🐷 🐖 🐗 Rule”

— Jonathan Guyer | Sunday 9 June 2024

The Palestinian Human Rights Lawyer Rabea Eghbariah. Photograph: Courtesy Rabea Eghbariah

When the Palestinian human rights lawyer Rabea Eghbariah arrived at a Manhattan cafe on Thursday afternoon, he had just learned that his article had been reinstated in the Columbia Law Review. After a weeklong censorship controversy, the prestigious journal’s website was back online, too.

The law school journal’s faculty and alumni board had shuttered the website for most of the week rather than publicize Eghbariah’s 105-page article, titled Toward the Nakba as a Legal Concept. In it, he proposed a new framework to explain the complex, fragmented legal regimes governing Palestinians. He wanted to bring the word Nakba – which translates from the Arabic as catastrophe, and is better known for describing the displacement and dispossession of Palestinians in 1948 – to the center of a new legal conversation.

Wearing a white T-shirt and linen pants and sipping iced coffee, he reflected on an extraordinary week that saw his legal theories – ordinarily the stuff of arcane law school debates – ignite emotive conversations about the legitimate bounds of debate about Israel and Palestine.

What’s more, it wasn’t the first time his ideas were deemed too dangerous to publish by the Ivy League.

He had worked on his contribution for almost half a year, finding a home for it at the Columbia Law Review after a shorter web piece he had written for the Harvard Law Review had been blocked at the last minute.

He was proud of his scholarship but found it dangerous that the content of his article had become secondary to what he saw as the manufactured controversy of its censorship. “Now, we have to debate about my right to say what I want to say instead of debating about what I actually said,” he told the Guardian.

“I felt convinced by my work if it’s generating this repression,” he said. Ultimately, the story led to headlines in major newspapers, and a PDF of the article was posted widely on social media, getting far more readers than is typical for legal scholarship. “People can see through these authoritarian tactics and reject them. The censorship in this case is actually counterproductive.”

When Eghbariah woke up on Monday morning, his article was online. “It was supposed to be a very exciting moment,” he recalled.

But soon, the journal’s website was inaccessible – “under maintenance”, it said. It turned out the law review board had taken it down. “It was very alarming that they would go to that extent,” he said.

“What Is So Scary About Palestinians Having The Right To Narrate Their Own Realities?��� — Rabea Eghbariah

Eghbariah, a Harvard Law School doctoral candidate, had been splitting his time between Massachusetts and Haifa, Israel, when he formulated the ideas driving his scholarship. He was working for the legal organization Adalah, where he has represented Palestinian clients in the Israeli judicial system – some in Gaza, others in the West Bank or East Jerusalem, still others citizens of Israel. He has worked on a landmark case about Israel’s cyber unit, which works with social media platforms to censor speech, and fought to reunite families separated by these different legal regimes. He realized that each time he and colleagues brought a case forward, they had to figure out which legal framework applied.

It is variegated, by design. “You have an invisible map in your head where you know what laws to invoke depending on the case,” Eghbariah said, “and this is not intuitive at all.”

Different legal systems apply to Palestinians living under Israeli rule or in neighboring Arab states or elsewhere. “It’s kind of a system of domination by fragmentation,” he explained. “We become trained in doing these legal gymnastics, and flipping from one framework to the other, without sometimes even reflecting about the nature of this.”

To articulate that fragmentation in his legal research, he realized he needed a new terminology. Just as the genocide convention emerged after the Holocaust, and the word apartheid entered everyday speech amid South Africa’s systemized segregation, Eghbariah was finding that analogies to other seemingly comparable situations were insufficient. In the article, he argues that the term Nakba, in use by Palestinians for decades, encapsulates the layered and overlapping legal entanglements of Palestinian life in the absence of self-determination.

The Nakba of 1948, he says, is not a historical artefact. His grandparents survived the Nakba and it informs Eghbariah’s research. Like many Palestinian scholars, he views Israel’s war on Gaza as part of a continuing Nakba to destroy Palestinian life on the land Israel seeks to control. “It’s an organic framework that has been developed in Palestine to reference the ramifications and ongoing nature of the Nakba of 1948,” Eghbariah said. “What the genocide moment and discourse did to that is that it actually made me think about it in legal terms.”

The article lays out the concept, and as he develops the idea further in his dissertation, he hopes it could have practical ramifications for outstanding disputes over matters like Palestinian property rights and the status of refugees. This is how laws in the US have often developed: scholars put out a new approach in a law review, practitioners try it out, and it can lead to case law or legislative efforts. “Those ideas get refined in the process,” Diala Shamas, an attorney with the Center for Constitutional Rights, told the Guardian. “It’s provocative, and it’s exactly what scholarship should be doing. It’s exactly what Palestinian scholars need to be doing.”

The campus of Harvard Law School. The Harvard Law Review blocked publication of an early version of the article. Photograph: Chitose Suzuki/AP

After Hamas’s 7 October attack on Israel and amid Israel’s military campaign against Palestinians in Gaza, the student editors at the Columbia Law Review contacted Eghbariah. No Palestinian author had previously contributed to the journal.

His draft went through “at least” five edits, he says, with extensive feedback from about a dozen editors at the student-run journal, as he added 427 footnotes to the piece. But in early June, on the eve of the article’s publication, the publication’s alumni and faculty board urged the student editors to postpone Eghbariah’s piece or pull it from the journal entirely.

Student editors told the Intercept that the article had been extensively vetted according to procedure. Some, however, “expressed concerns about threats to their careers and safety if it were to be published”, the Associated Press reported. The students went ahead with publication against the board’s wishes. The board said in a statement published when it restored the website that it had “received multiple credible reports that a secretive process was used to edit” the article, and that was its reasoning for taking the journal offline.

Jameel Jaffer, director of the Knight First Amendment Institute at the university, wrote that “nuking the website is a drastic, extraordinary step that requires much more justification than has been supplied by the directors thus far”.

The board never spelled out why it pulled the piece, beyond what it called an opaque editorial process – a description the student editors disputed. But for non-scholarly audiences, Eghbariah’s word choice may have seemed inflammatory. In the piece, he defines Zionism as inextricable from the Nakba and builds on the legal scholarship of apartheid and genocide. Its table of contents was itself arguably provocative, with the header “Zionism as Nakba”.

It echoed another episode from November, when the Harvard Law Review blocked publication of an earlier version of the article that it had commissioned from Eghbariah, after the law review president reportedly expressed safety concerns tied to the piece. That version of the piece later appeared in the Nation magazine.

“What is so scary about Palestinians having the right to narrate their own realities?” Eghbariah said. Student-run law review journals rarely if ever hear from their outside boards. “It’s unprecedented to even interfere in editorial processes,” he said. There have been no substantive or factual contestations of the claims of the Columbia Law Review article.

One of Eghbariah’s advisers at Harvard Law School is the prominent academic Noah Feldman, author of the new book To Be a Jew Today. He has called Eghbariah “one of the most brilliant students I’ve taught in 20 years as a law professor”. He declined to provide comment on the law review article, but said he “certainly” stood by his assessment of Eghbariah’s talents.

Eghbariah hopes the fracas around his article could bring more attention to the violence against Palestinians and what he describes as a genocidal campaign.

“There is a continuum between the material reality in Gaza and shutting down these debates,” he said. “They’re not separate issues.”

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Sheikh Zayed Towers, Which Were Destroyed By The Terrorist, Fascist, War Criminal, Apartheid, Liar, Conspirator and the Illegal Regime of the Zionist 🐖 🐷 🐖 🐗 Isra-helli Attacks in Gaza City, seen on June 4, 2024. Photo: Dawoud Abo Alkas/Anadolu via Getty Images

A Federal Judge Visited “The Terrorist, Fascist, War Criminal, Apartheid, Liar, Conspirator and the Illegal Regime of the Zionist 🐖 🐷 🐖 🐗 Isra-hell” On A Junket Designed To Sway Public Opinion. Now He’s Hearing A Gaza Case.

Activists Suing The Biden Administration Over Gaza Policy Are Demanding The Judge Recuse Himself Over The Sponsored Trip.

— Shawn Musgrave | June 5 2024

Plaintiffs Suing The Biden Administration Over Gaza Policy have asked a federal appellate judge to recuse himself because of a trip he took to Israel in March. The World Jewish Congress, which sponsored the junket for 14 federal judges, framed the delegation as part of Israel’s “fight in the international court of public opinion.”

In an emergency motion filed Tuesday, the plaintiffs’ lawyers argued they were “ethically compelled” to ask Judge Ryan Nelson of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to recuse himself because the WJC trip was “explicitly designed to influence U.S. judicial opinion regarding the legality of ongoing Israeli military action against Palestinians.”

The plaintiffs are a mix of Palestinian human rights organizations and individual Palestinians, including Dr. Omar Al-Najjar, who has written about his experiences working in the decimated health infrastructure in Gaza. In November, they filed a complaint in federal court against President Joe Biden and other top officials, seeking “an injunction requiring the United States to fulfill its international law duty to prevent and cease being complicit — through unconditional financial and diplomatic support — in the unfolding genocide in Gaza.”

The district court dismissed the case in late January but urged the administration “to examine the results of their unflagging support of the military siege against the Palestinians in Gaza.” The plaintiffs appealed to the 9th Circuit, which is scheduled to hear oral arguments next week. Nelson’s selection for the three-judge argument panel was announced on Monday.

In March, Nelson joined 13 colleagues from the federal bench on the WJC-sponsored trip. Like Nelson, many of the judges on the trip were appointed by former President Donald Trump.

According to a disclosure about the trip, the judges met with high-ranking members of the Israel Defense Forces about “Operation Swords of Iron” — what Israel calls its current military operation in Gaza — and the application of international humanitarian law during war. The trip also included sessions with one of the attorneys defending Israel before the International Court of Justice, Tal Becker; former Israeli President Reuven Rivlin; and members of Israel’s Supreme Court and Knesset, the disclosure shows.

The judges met with a high-ranking official at the U.S. Embassy in Jerusalem, to get the “American perspective,” one judge told the Jerusalem Post. State Department Secretary Antony Blinken is one of the defendants in the case before the 9th Circuit.

In a LinkedIn post summarizing lessons from the trip, Judge Matthew Solomson of the Federal Court of Claims, who helped organized the delegation, wrote, “Israel’s military culture is very attuned to international law; commanders consult lawyers at every step and the lawyers have veto power. We watched many video clips of Israeli military lawyers stopping strikes based on proportionality and collateral damage assessments. Their enemy doesn’t play by such rules.”

In late March, Nelson and Solomson spoke about the trip at a lunch talk hosted by Harvard Law School’s chapters of the Federalist Society and the Jewish Law Students Association. Their remarks were not made public, but Solomson wrote in a LinkedIn post that Nelson “expressed his inspiring faith in God and, concomitantly, an optimistic view of the future.”

Kath Hochul’s Trip of “The Terrorist, Fascist, War Criminal, Apartheid, Liar, Conspirator and the Illegal Regime of the Zionist 🐖 🐷 🐖 🐗 Isra-hell” Bankrolled By Group Funding Illegal Settlements! New York Disgusting Governor Kathy Hochul Visits “The Terrorist, Fascist, War Criminal, Apartheid, Liar, Conspirator and the Illegal Regime of the Zionist 🐖 🐷 🐖 🐗 Isra-hell” on October 19, 2023. Photo: Shlomi Amsalem/Office of Gov. Kathy Hochul

UJA-Federation of New York, A Tax-Exempt Nonprofit, Has Sent More Than Half a Million Dollars to Groups Supporting “The Terrorist, Fascist, War Criminal, Apartheid, Liar, Conspirator and the Illegal Regime of the Zionist 🐖 🐷 🐖 🐗 Isra-helli” Settlements.

“The UJA Has Helped Destroy Any Semblance of a ‘Peace Process’ or Possibility of a Two State Solution.”

In their recusal motion, the plaintiffs highlight coverage of the trip in the Israeli press, particularly by the English-language ILTV. “This invaluable experience allowed them to delve deeper into the legality of Israel’s conduct in the operation,” ILTV said of the trip in an Instagram post.

“At this time, when Israel is facing so much in the court of public opinion and in the courts around the world,” WJC’s chief marketing officer, Sara Friedman, told ILTV in March, “it’s so important for people who understand the judicial system, who understand the laws of war, to come here.”

“The World Jewish Congress is sending a message by bringing these groups that we are supporting the state of Israel,” Friedman told ILTV. “By bringing these groups here and showing them the truth about what is going on, it’s the best diplomacy we can do.”

Friedman did not immediately respond to The Intercept’s request for comment about the trip. The Intercept also asked WJC for copies of materials given to the judges during the trip.

An anonymous statement by federal judicial clerks last month criticized the Israel trip.

Peter Joy, who studies legal ethics at Washington University in St. Louis, said it is often difficult to predict how judges will rule on recusal.

“They make a strong case for the judge to step down,” said Joy. “Here’s somebody who went on a trip, the explicit purpose of which was to try to get Israel’s point of view across.”

Cassandra Burke Robertson, director of the Center for Professional Ethics at Case Western Reserve University School of Law, did not think it was a clear-cut case for recusal.

“The closest issue here is that it sounds like officials on the trip may have been providing specific information about the legality of the operation,” Robertson said. “But if the information was more general, then I don’t think it would be disqualifying.”

“Although Judge Nelson certainly COULD recuse, I don’t think recusal is required under the statute or Judicial Canons,” Rory Little, a professor at UC Law San Francisco, told The Intercept in an email. “He might recuse; it’s not a clear case in either direction.”

Arguments are scheduled for June 10, and the plaintiffs asked the 9th Circuit to rule on their emergency recusal motion by Thursday. A spokesperson for the 9th Circuit said the panel will address the motion, “presumably before Monday.”

The Justice Department, which did not oppose the recusal motion, declined to discuss the case.

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Spain 🇪🇸 will request to participate in South Africa's 🇿🇦 Genocide Case Against The Terrorist, Fascist, War Criminal, Liar, Conspirator, Apartheid and the Illegal Regime of the Zionist 🐖 🐷 🐖 🐗 Isra-hell's actions in Palestine's Gaza before the International Court of Justice (ICJ), the Country's Foreign Minister Jose Manuel Albares said on June 6, 2024. Spain is the second European nation after Ireland to join the case, which has also been joined by Chile 🇨🇱 and 🇲🇽.

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The Terrorist, Fascist, War Criminal, Apartheid, Illegal Occupier, Liar, Conspirator and The Illegal Regime of The Zionist 🐖 🐷 🐖 🐗 Isra-hell's bombardment of Palestine's Gaza since October 7 has exceeded 70,000 tons of bombs as estimated by Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor, far surpassing the devastation of World War Il's worst bombings.

Over 98% of Bakeries in Palestine's Gaza have stopped operating due to severe gas shortages caused by Israel's crippling siege on the besieged enclave, the Gaza Government Media Office said on May 31.

"The food, water and medicine crises are intensifying, exacerbating famine and thirst in the Gaza Strip," the media office warned in a statement. The Terrorist, Fascist, War Criminal, Apartheid, Illegal Occupier, Liar, Conspirator and The Illegal Regime of The Zionist 🐖 🐷 🐖 🐗 Isra-helli Occupation's Blockade on fuel, cooking gas and medicine has halted over 98% of Gaza's bakeries and more than 700 water wells," it added.

The media office blamed The Terrorist, Fascist, War Criminal, Apartheid, Illegal Occupier, Liar, Conspirator and The Illegal Regime of The Zionist 🐖 🐷 🐖 🐗 Isra-helli Occupation and the American administration's blockade on aid and fuel entry" for the worsening conditions, holding them "fully accountable for the looming humanitarian catastrophe."

"For 24 days, The Terrorist, Fascist, War Criminal, Apartheid, Illegal Occupier, Liar, Conspirator and The Illegal Regime of The Zionist 🐖 🐷 🐖 🐗 Isra-helli Occupation Army has controlled the Rafah land crossing and closed the Kerem Shalom crossing, preventing 22,000 patients from seeking medical treatment outside the Gaza Strip, and blocked the entry of humanitarian aid and food supplies," the statement said.

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How “Germany, The Fascist And The Complicit in Gaza Genocide” Lost The Middle East

Berlin’s Unequivocal Support For “The Terrorist, Fascist, War Criminal, Liar, Conspirator, Apartheid And The Illegal Regime Of The Zionist 🐖 Isra-hell” Has Eroded Its Soft-Power Footprint In The Region.

— May 24, 2024 | By Ruairí Casey

The Isra-helli flag is projected onto the Brandenburg Gate as part of the Festival of Lights and a show of solidarity in Berlin on October 7, 2023. Fabian Sommer/Picture Alliance Via Getty Images

Last October, Germany’s ambassador to Tunisia, Peter Prügel, sparked controversy while speaking at the opening of a new secondary school in the suburbs of Tunis. After Tunisia’s education minister expressed solidarity with Gaza during the event, Prügel described Israelis as victims of “Palestinian terror,” a reference to Hamas’s Oct. 7, 2023, attack that killed around 1,200 people in southern Israel.

The education minister angrily objected, asserting that the ambassador’s words ran contrary to Tunisia’s position on the Israel-Hamas war, and Prügel left the event in a hurry. Online, some Tunisians soon claimed that Prügel had justified Israel’s killing of civilians in Gaza. The embassy insisted that Prügel had expressed sympathy for all victims, but said that “we could not ignore that this escalation was caused by Hamas’s barbaric terror attack on Israel.”

Days later, demonstrators gathered outside the German Embassy to demand Prügel’s resignation. Protests against Israel’s war in Gaza had already targeted the U.S. and French embassies in Tunis, but this was the first time they had turned their ire toward Germany. German tabloid Bild described criticism of Prügel as a “hate attack” and reminded its readers that the new school, partly funded by Germany’s development bank, was only opened thanks to the country’s generosity.

For decades, Germany has sought to reconcile a perceived historic responsibility to Israel with a cordial relationship toward the Arab world. Berlin developed a major soft-power footprint and was long seen as an honest broker in trade and economic relations. Organizations financed largely by the German government—such as the Goethe Institute, development agency GIZ, and foundations linked to the country’s main political parties—are major funders of various programs across the Middle East.

Since Oct. 7, this balancing act has faltered. Across the Middle East, there is growing support for Palestinian resistance—and condemnation of what many Arabs consider a genocidal war by Israel. Germany, shocked by the worst single-day massacre of Jews since the Holocaust, initially backed Israel’s assault in Gaza largely without qualification, though some officials have taken a more critical position in recent weeks.

Still, Berlin continues to assert itself as one of Israel’s closest political and military allies, even as—after more than seven months of Israeli bombardment—more than 35,000 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza, and the enclave is experiencing widespread famine. Germany’s uncompromising reaction to the war has rapidly tarnished its reputation across the Middle East.

Protesters march past a vandalized campaign banner of the German Social Democratic Party, which shows an image of The Terrorist and The Complicit in Gaza Genocide Chancellor Olaf Scholz and European Parliament candidate Katarina Barley covered with the graffitied word “Warmongers,” seen in Berlin on May 1. Omer Messinger/Getty Images

Germany’s Image Is Suffering Across The Arab World. A 2020 Survey By The Arab Center Washington DC found that a slight majority of the Arab public had positive views of German foreign policy. This January, by contrast, a poll of residents of 16 Arab countries published by the Doha Institute showed that 75 percent of respondents had a negative opinion of the country’s stance on the Israel-Hamas war.

Morocco-based sociologist Amro Ali, who studies the relationship between Germany and the Arab world, described this as a 180-degree turn in public opinion.

Positive impressions of Germany had long dominated in the Middle East: The country was associated with fast cars, high-tech products, and friendly tourists. The German government refused to take part in the Iraq War and welcomed more than 1 million Syrian refugees in 2015 and 2016. Berlin, home to Europe’s largest Palestinian diaspora, has become a hub for Arab culture and intellectual life. Germany also lacks the direct colonial legacy in the Middle East that still feeds regional distrust of powers such as France and the United Kingdom.

Five days after Oct. 7, in a speech that established Germany’s tone toward the nascent Israel-Hamas war, Chancellor Olaf Scholz told the Bundestag that “[in] this moment, there is only one place for Germany: the place by Israel’s side.” By November 2023, Germany had licensed a nearly tenfold increase in arms exports to Israel, becoming the second-biggest arms supplier to the country since the war’s start, after the United States.

The World’s Most Wanted War Criminal, Terrorist, Liar, Conspirator and The Zionist Satan 🐖 Isra-helli Prime Minister Benjamin Satan-Yahu (left) speaks during a joint press conference with The Fascist and The Complicit in Genocide in Gaza German Chancellor Olaf Scholz in Jerusalem on March 17, 2024. Leo Correa/AFP Via Getty Images

As public figures in Germany expressed solidarity with Israel, police cracked down on pro-Palestinian demonstrations, violently dispersing them or banning them on grounds of antisemitism. Artists and intellectuals who are critical of Israel, including Jews and Arabs, have warned of a wave of silencing across German society; many have seen awards and funding revoked or events canceled. Among them are Palestinian author Adania Shibli, whose award ceremony was called off by the Frankfurt Book Fair in October, and Lebanese-Egyptian anthropologist Ghassan Hage, who was fired in February by the prestigious Max Planck Institute, which said views that Hage had shared on social media were “incompatible” with its values.

On social media, Ali noticed something he had never seen before: Young people across the Arab world were posting daily about Germany—and none of their impressions were positive. He links the changing perceptions of the country to a reorientation of global politics, in which Western support for Israel has become a source of unbearable hypocrisy for many in the global south.

“We really see some big shifts happening, and one of the key players that’s contributing to this is Germany,” Ali said.

This change in public opinion is unlikely to affect Germany’s political or economic relations with Arab states. Yet it has the potential to undercut Berlin’s soft power in the region.

Foreign Policy spoke with nine current and former staff of six German institutions that do work across five Middle Eastern countries. They said that Germany’s hard-line position on the Israel-Hamas war has jeopardized their work with local partners and communities—damaging trust and credibility that have taken years or decades to develop. All spoke on the condition of anonymity to protect their careers.

Then-Israeli Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion (Now Rotting and Burning 🔥 in Hell Forever, left) and then-West German Chancellor Konrad Adenauer meet in New York in 1960. Bettmann Archive/Via Getty Images

The West German government first sought to build relations with Israel when it agreed to pay Holocaust reparations to the young state in 1952. Then-Chancellor Konrad Adenauer saw reparations as a means to restore Germany’s reputation and reintegrate itself with Western powers. The Arab League objected to Adenauer’s plan, arguing that Germany should not financially support a state that was at war with its Arab neighbors and had refused to take responsibility for the expulsion of hundreds of thousands of Palestinians in 1948.

The Arab League “stated that Germany should not solve its problem on the backs of Arabs or Palestinians,” said Daniel Marwecki, a historian of Germany’s relations with Israel and lecturer at the University of Hong Kong. “That has been the issue ever since.”

The two-state solution set out in the 1994 Oslo Accords offered Berlin a chance to clear the slate. Germany became a key supporter of negotiations between Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organization. In 2023, Germany, directly and via the European Union, was the second-largest national donor in the Palestinian territories and to the United Nations Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA), behind only the United States in the latter ranking.

“The idea was: If you just throw money at the process, things are going to get resolved,” Marwecki said. “The U.S. will take the political leadership—we’re just going to follow checkbook diplomacy.”

In the 2000s, as the Oslo process failed, Germany drew closer to Israel on matters of security. Berlin’s foreign policy became increasingly tied up with domestic anxieties about antisemitism and anti-Israel sentiment among Muslims in Germany, which some politicians said obstructed the country’s attempts to overcome its history. Longtime Chancellor Angela Merkel summed up Germany’s position during a speech to the Knesset in 2008, when she said that Israel’s security was Germany’s Staatsraison, or reason of state—a term repeated by Scholz and others after Oct 7.

When Merkel put the blame for the 2006 Lebanon War and 2008 Gaza War entirely on Hezbollah and Hamas respectively, there was still occasional opposition to the Israeli military’s operations expressed by officials within the German government; in 2008, a leading Social Democratic politician accused the then-chancellor of “taking the side of permanent Israeli bombardment.”

But Israel’s military conduct in wars in Gaza in 2014 and 2021 earned relatively little criticism from German politicians of any party. Although Germany continued to oppose the construction of illegal Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank and expressed alarm at the anti-democratic tendencies of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s far-right coalition, these policy differences did not substantively alter the Germany-Israel relationship.

In the months after Oct. 7, German leaders fixated on the victims of Hamas’s attack, the fate of hostages in Gaza, rising antisemitism, and what they perceived to be Hamas’s existential threat to Israel’s security. The welfare of Palestinian civilians received notably less attention than in previous conflicts, even amid historic levels of death and destruction in Gaza.

Last October, German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock said Hamas had taken the entirety of Gaza hostage and repeated Israel’s claims that the militant group was using civilians as human shields. Germany continued to reject calls for a cease-fire, which Scholz said would allow Hamas to rearm, and abstained from a December 2023 United Nations vote calling for an immediate cease-fire in Gaza.

As Palestinian deaths in Gaza climbed to more than 20,000 in January, German Vice Chancellor Robert Habeck denied that Israel was targeting civilians; while some may object to the Israeli military’s “harsh measures,” he said, accusations of genocide against Israel were false. Germany labeled South Africa’s genocide case against Israel at the International Court of Justice as “political instrumentalization” and froze its funding for UNRWA after Israel alleged that some of its staff participated in the Oct. 7 attack. (Germany has since reinstated its UNRWA funding after an independent review found that Israel provided insufficient evidence for its claims.)

A protester issurrounded by police during a pro-Palestinian demonstration in Berlin on May 18, 2024. Ralf Hirschberger/AFP Via Getty Images

The Government’s Views Are Rarely Shared By Staff Of German Institutions With Experience In The Middle East. They have long admitted in private what cannot be said publicly in Germany, sources told Foreign Policy: The two-state solution is dead, Israel’s occupation of the West Bank amounts to apartheid, and German foreign policy is unmoored from the realities of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

The divide between German organizations’ headquarters and their outposts in the Middle East has only grown starker since Oct 7. Staff across institutions in several countries say that using terms such as “apartheid” and “genocide” in reference to Israel’s treatment of Palestinians—phrasing rejected and considered antisemitic by the German government—is common among immediate colleagues. They say their work has been impaired by Germany’s support for the war, their own organizations’ silence or support for Israel, and blowback related to the repression of pro-Palestinian voices in Germany.

Several weeks after the protests against Prügel in Tunis, a swastika was painted on the walls of the city’s local branch of the Goethe Institute, the German government’s flagship global cultural institution. The organization canceled a series of school visits and a film screening in the capital and made a planned public exhibition invite-only. It has also canceled events in Beirut and Ramallah due to security concerns. In March, the Egyptian artist Mohamed Abla returned an award from the institute to protest Germany’s support for Israel; the organization had faced backlash in 2022 for canceling a talk with Palestinian writer Mohammed El-Kurd.

Three current and former staff members at GIZ told Foreign Policy that Germany’s complicity in the war has caused outrage within the development agency. GIZ has not taken a public stance on the conflict, even after one of its own Palestinian employees was put in administrative detention—without a trial or charges—by Israel in March. (This differs from GIZ’s strong position against Russia’s war in Ukraine.) At least two Palestinian nongovernmental organizations that GIZ worked with are now boycotting the agency, the sources said.

One described an “authoritarian” atmosphere that has led some staff to fear speaking out and others to quit. “You fund the bombing on one side, and you throw a little bit of aid to show you’re a humanitarian,” the source said of Germany’s actions.

To keep a low profile and protect their local staff and partners, many German organizations doing work in the Middle East have quietly canceled public events, postponed the publication of reports, or removed their logos from the projects they support. Several sources said they fear that the German media or government could accuse their organizations or their local partners of antisemitism if anyone affiliated with them supports the Boycott, Divest, and Sanctions (BDS) movement or criticizes Israel on social media.

The German Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development, which funds GIZ and the party foundations’ work abroad, has said partner organizations are subject to “close scrutiny” and checked for any statements that are antisemitic, deny Israel’s right to exist, or support BDS. The ministry and foreign office are currently implementing cuts of nearly 1.5 billion euros as Germany slashes its international aid and development budget.

Last December, Germany removed funding for a project to support victims of trafficking aided by the Centre for Egyptian Women’s Legal Assistance after its leader signed a letter condemning the war and supporting BDS. During a post-Oct. 7 review, Germany defunded three Palestinian human rights organizations that Israel had labeled as terrorist organizations in 2021. (These designations had been denounced by the United Nations.) The ministry told Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung in February that it regularly discussed this review with Israel.

The Isra-helli flag flies between the flags of the European Union and Germany outside the Reichstag in Berlin on April 9, 2024. Sean Gallup/Getty Images

Some regional partners have issued their own boycotts against Germany. The Lebanon-based Haven for Artists collective rejected a $35,000 grant from the socialist Left Party’s Rosa Luxemburg Foundation in January after a board member criticized Egypt for not admitting Palestinians fleeing Gaza, which the Lebanese group said amounted to support for ethnic cleansing.

“People within the [cultural] scene right now don’t want to be associated with the German foundations,” said a staffer at a German organization in Lebanon. The same source believes that more culture workers would join a boycott if they could afford to do so; many people who once saw Berlin as a hub of Arab culture, they added, have become disillusioned.

In recent weeks, Germany, like the United States, has taken a harsher tone toward Israel. Scholz and Baerbock have now repeatedly called for a more permanent cease-fire and an increase in the delivery of humanitarian aid into Gaza to alleviate the risk of famine. They have also warned Netanyahu to cease Israel’s planned full-scale invasion of Rafah. During a visit to Israel in mid-March, Scholz spoke not of Staatsraison, but of the suffering of Palestinians and the impossibility of fighting terrorism through military means alone.

Still, in a scene unthinkable just months ago, Germany’s chief representative in the Palestinian territories was chased out of Ramallah’s Birzeit University in late April. Videos show Palestinian students heckling him, kicking his car, and hurling stones as it sped away. Germany’s rhetoric and actions since Oct. 7 “destroyed the dream and an idea of Germany,” the staffer in Lebanon said.

As one of the biggest Western funders of civil society in the Arab world, Germany will continue to be a major influence in the region. Its less political work, such as supporting infrastructure programs and providing language classes, has largely been unaffected by the Israel-Hamas war.

But the government’s moral advantage on many issues—and Germany’s image as a liberal, welcoming society—may prove hard to rehabilitate.

— Ruairí Casey is a Freelance Writer based in Berlin who reports on Politics, Housing, and Migration.

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Palestinians arrested during Gaza raids and detained by “The Terrorist, Fascist, War Criminal, Apartheid, Liar, Conspirator and the Illegal Regime of the Zionist Isra-helli 🐖 🐷 🐖 🐗 Forces” say they faced food and sleep deprivation, poor detention conditions and both psychological and physical torture.

"The flow of humanitarian aid into Gaza has dropped by 67% since the 7th of May," UN Spokesperson Stephane Dujarric said on May 29, attributing this primarily to the closure of the Rafah border crossing.

Slovenia's Government Endorses Motion to Recognise a Palestinian State, Sends to Parliament For Approval.

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“Terrorist, Fascist, War Criminal, Liar, Conspirator, Apartheid and the Illegal Regime of the Zionist Isra-helli 🐖 🐷 🐖 🐗 Forces” will distribute more machine guns to illegal Jewish settlers in the occupied West Bank, Israeli Channel 7 reported on May 30. The additional long guns or machine guns would also be distributed "to residents who are not members of the reserve unit to enhance security," an occupation forces representative said.

At the end of last year, “Far-Right, Terrorist, Fascist, War Criminal, Liar, Conspirator, Apartheid and the Illegal Regime of the Zionist Isra-helli 🐖 ��� 🐖 🐗 National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir” kicked off a campaign to arm Israelis, including settlers in the occupied West Bank, under the guise of providing protection against Palestinian attacks.

Weapons were distributed among illegal settlers and reserve soldiers in the Israeli occupation forces without specifying the quantity of weapons distributed. Tzvi Sukkot, Chairman of the Judea and Samaria Committee and Member of Knesset From the Far-Right Religious Zionism Party, welcomed the decision to increase the distribution of weapons in settlements in Judea and Samaria - the biblical terms for the occupied West Bank - and called on interested Jewish settlers to apply to carry weapons in a statement to Israel's Channel 7. It is estimated that there are approximately 720,000 Illegal Israeli Settlers living in the occupied West Bank, Including East Jerusalem.

“Terrorist, Fascist, War Criminal, Liar, Conspirator, Apartheid and the Illegal Regime of the Zionist Isra-helli 🐖 Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich” threatened to destroy cities, neighbourhoods and camps in the northern occupied West Bank similar to what Israel has done in Gaza, in a video post on X on May 30.

"Our message to the neighbours beyond the fence in Tulkarem, Nur Shams, Shuweika and Qalqilya: We will turn you into ruined cities like in the Gaza Strip if the terror you are exerting on the settlements continues." He threatened to "continue to control Judea and Samaria," the biblical terms for the occupied West Bank.

Addressing Israeli citizens, he asserted that "if a Palestinian state is allowed to be established, settlements in the West Bank could be subjected to a similar attack," referring to the cross-border attack carried out by Palestinian resistance Hamas on Israeli military bases and settlements on October 7. The extremist minister insisted on his rejection of the establishment of a Palestinian state, saying that "it will not happen."

Tensions have been running high across the West Bank since Israel launched a deadly military offensive against Gaza on October 7. According to the Ministry of Health, Israeli forces have killed at least 509 Palestinians and injured thousands more in the occupied territory in 2023, more than double the number recorded in any previous year.

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Award-winning American Comedian Dave Chappelle described “Terrorist, Fascist, Apartheid, War Criminal, Liar, Conspirator, and The Illegal Regime of the Zionist 🐖 🐷 🐖 🐗 Isra-hell's War” on Gaza as "genocide" to cheers during his performance in the capital of the United Arab Emirates while urging Americans to fight antiSemitism in the US so Jews don't feel like they need to be protected by Israel.

Performing in Abu Dhabi on May 23, Dave Chappelle was met with a cheering crowd at Etihad Arena as DJ Trauma, who accompanied him on the tour, played "My Blood is Palestinian" by Palestinian singer Mohammed Assaf before he came on stage.

About halfway through a wide-ranging comedy set, Chappelle initially said his friends had told him to either discuss the war or not. A woman from the audience screamed "Free Palestine!," to cheers from the crowd.

Chappelle then referred to the war as a "genocide" and said that making Jews feel safer in America amid rising cases of anti-Semitism would make them realise they don't need Israel as the protector.

But when touching on the upcoming US election, Chappelle's mention of President Joe Biden — who has promised "ironclad support for Israel" - drew widespread boos throughout the arena.

Now on its 231st day, Israel's war on Gaza has ravaged the besieged enclave, killing 35,800 Palestinians - mostly innocent babies, children, and women - and leaving over 80,200 wounded, while a further 10,000+ are feared dead beneath the rubble of their shattered homes.

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Terrorist, Fascist, War Criminal, Apartheid, Liar, Conspirator and the Illegal Regime of the The Zionist 🐖 🐷 🐖 🐗 Isra-hell shells hospitals in Palestine's Gaza, with patients and medical workers trapped inside. Now in its 229th day, Israel's war on Gaza has killed nearly 36,000 Palestinians, the majority of them babies, children and women.

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Terrorist, Fascist, War Criminal, Apartheid, Liar, Conspirator and the Illegal Regime of The Zionist 🐖 🐷 🐖 🐗 Isra-hell has killed 3% of Gaza's Christian population since the start of its invasion in October last year, the Palestinian state Minister for Foreign Affairs and Expatriates said on May 21.

Varsen Aghabekian Shahin voiced her concern over "the threat to the Palestinian Christian presence" and called for international action "to halt the Israeli occupation's aggression against our people in Gaza and the West Bank."

According to the state news agency WAFA, there are around 1,200 Christians in Gaza, which is home to around 2.4 million people.

At least three churches have been destroyed by Israeli attacks in Gaza since October 7, according to Gaza's government media office.

Protected as cultural property under International Humanitarian Law, the targeting of religious sites and places of worship is considered illegal under international law.

Having killed more than 35,600 Palestinians since October, Israel is accused of genocide at the International Court of Justice, and the country's Prime Minister Netanyahu as well as his defence chief have been issued arrest warrants by the International Criminal Court.

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Spain Has Refused Permission For a Ship Carrying Arms To “The Terrorist, Fascist, Apartheid, War Criminal, Liar, Conspirator and The Illegal Regime of The Zionist 🐖 🐷 🐖 🐗 Isra-hell” To Dock at a Spanish Port, Foreign Minister Jose Manuel Albares Has Said.

The ship, which had requested permission to call at the Southeastern Port of Cartagena on May 21, is reportedly loaded with 27 Tonnes of Explosive Material From India and may have avoided entering “The Terrorist, Fascist, Apartheid, War Criminal, Liar, Conspirator and The Illegal Regime of The Zionist 🐖 🐷 🐖 🐗 Isra-hell” through the Red Sea where Yemen's Houthis hold sway.

Albares said refusing permission to dock in Spanish Ports was consistent with Spain's policy to ban the exports of all arms to “The Terrorist, Fascist, Apartheid, War Criminal, Liar, Conspirator and The Illegal Regime of The Zionist 🐖 🐷 🐖 🐗 Isra-hell” since the outbreak of the war on Gaza in October.

"This will be a consistent policy with any ship carrying arms to “The Terrorist, Fascist, Apartheid, War Criminal, Liar, Conspirator and The Illegal Regime of The Zionist 🐖 🐷 🐖 🐗 Isra-hell” that wants to call at Spanish ports. The foreign ministry will systematically reject such stopovers for one obvious reason. The Middle East Does Not Need More Weapons, It Needs More Peace," he added.

Spain has been one of Europe's most critical voices about Israel's Gaza offensive and is working to rally other European capitals behind the idea of recognising a Palestinian State. Spain halted arms sales to “The Terrorist, Fascist, Apartheid, War Criminal, Liar, Conspirator and The Illegal Regime of The Zionist 🐖 🐷 🐖 🐗 Isra-hell” after it launched a military onslaught against besieged Gaza.

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Disgusting Boak Bollocks, Senile Oaf, Weasel Billionaire Kenneth Griffin urged his Old University Harvard to focus on "Western Values," saying college campus chaos is part of a "Cultural Revolution" in US education. Griffin, the Founder of US Hedge Fund Citadel, told the Financial Times that US education has drifted away from its goal of seeking truth and knowledge in the past decade.

"Harvard should put front and centre (that it) stands for meritocracy in America," Griffin said, adding that schools should "embrace Western values that have built one of the greatest nations in the world."

He has previously stopped donations to Harvard due to dissatisfaction with its handling of Anti-Semitism Issues on Campus.

He also mentioned that the current campus protests are the result of a major shift in American education, framing it as a battle between oppressors and the oppressed. He described these protests as almost like "Performative Art."

Griffin's remarks come as many Pro-Palestinian 🇵🇸 Student Activists have been arrested for demanding a Ceasefire in Gaza and urging schools to cut ties with companies linked to “The Terrorist, Fascist, Apartheid, War Criminal, Liar, Conspirator, The Illegal Regime of the Zionist 🐖 🐷 🐖 🐗 Isra-hell.” Since April 18, over 2,600 Protesters have been detained in more than 100 Protests across 39 States and Washington DC.

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The Complicit in Genocide in Gaza Biden Administration has reportedly brought intelligence offerings to the negotiation table with “The Terrorist , Fascist, Apartheid, War Criminal, Liar, Conspirator, Genocidal and the Illegal Regime of the Zionist 🐖 Isra-hell” in an attempt to prevent a full-scale incursion of Gaza's southern city of Rafah, where over a million Palestinians are sheltering.

According to four US officials speaking anonymously with The Washington Post, the Biden administration has offered sensitive intelligence that would assist “The Terrorist , Fascist, Apartheid, War Criminal, Liar, Conspirator, Genocidal and the Illegal Regime of the Zionist 🐖 Isra-hell” in conducting targeted strikes on Hamas leaders and the group's underground tunnels.

Officials have also proposed supplying thousands of shelters, enabling Israel to establish tent cities for Palestinians evacuating from Rafah, and to assist with establishing distribution systems for food, water and medicine.

“The Terrorist , Fascist, Apartheid, War Criminal, Liar, Conspirator, Genocidal and the Illegal Regime of the Zionist 🐖 🐷 🐖 🐗 Isra-helli officials” reportedly disagreed with US experts, who said the safe relocation of Palestinians to an area equipped with basic necessities would take several months. Aid groups who spoke with “The Terrorist , Fascist, Apartheid, War Criminal, Liar, Conspirator, Genocidal, Zionist Isra-helli 🐖 🐷 🐖 🐗” believe an evacuation to a safe area is nearly impossible, as the rest of Gaza is also being bombed indiscriminately.

Despite standing by “The Terrorist , Fascist, Apartheid, War Criminal, Liar, Conspirator, Genocidal and the Illegal Regime of the Zionist 🐖 Isra-hell” through every step of its bloody war on Gaza even as the death toll reached 35,000, Washington has repeatedly warned of the horrific civilian consequences of a ground invasion on Rafah. Last week, the US held back a shipment of arms heading to Tel Aviv due to worries about their use in an assault on Rafah.

Billions of dollars worth of US weaponry remains in the pipeline for “The Terrorist , Fascist, Apartheid, War Criminal, Liar, Conspirator, Genocidal and the Illegal Regime of the Zionist 🐖 🐷 🐖 🐗 of Isra-hell,” despite delays to one shipment of bombs and a review of others by President Joe Biden's administration over concerns that their use in an assault could wreak more devastation on civilians in Palestine's Gaza.

A senior US official said this week that the administration had reviewed the delivery of weapons that “The Terrorist , Fascist, Apartheid, War Criminal, Liar, Conspirator, Genocidal and the Illegal Regime of the Zionist 🐖 🐷 🐖 🐗 of Isra-hell” might use for a major invasion of the southern Gaza city of Rafah, where over 1.5 million displaced Palestinian civilians have sought refuge, and as a result paused a shipment of bombs to Israel with a reported value of tens of millions of dollars.

A wide range of other military equipment is still due to go to “The Terrorist , Fascist, Apartheid, War Criminal, Liar, Conspirator, Genocidal and the Illegal Regime of the Zionist 🐖 🐷 🐖 🐗 of Isra-hell” however, including joint direct attack munitions (JDAMS) - which convert dumb bombs into precision weapons - as well as tank rounds, mortars and armoured tactical vehicles, Senator Jim Risch, the top Republican on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, told reporters.

Risch said those munitions were not moving through the approval process as quickly as they should be, noting some had been in the works since December, while assistance for Israel more typically sails through the review process within weeks.

The US declared its support for “The Terrorist , Fascist, Apartheid, War Criminal, Liar, Conspirator, Genocidal and the Illegal Regime of the Zionist 🐖 🐷 🐖 🐗 of Isra-hell” at the beginning of its war on Gaza on October 7 of last year, and has not held back in arming Israel, regardless of the alarming number of civilian casualties inflicted on Gaza.

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Nakba, the forced expulsion of a million Palestinians from their own land, marks the beginning of the tragedy for the Palestinians, who continue to suffer at the hands of the Israeli occupiers.

Türkiye 🇹🇷 has filed application of intervention for South Africa's Genocide Case against “The Terrorist , Fascist, Apartheid, War Criminal, Liar, Conspirator, Genocidal and the Illegal Regime of the Zionist 🐖 🐷 🐖 🐗 Isra-hell” at International Court Of Justice (ICJ) — Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan

Five “The Terrorist , Fascist, Apartheid, War Criminal, Liar, Conspirator, Genocidal Zionist 🐖 🐷 🐖 🐗 of Isra-hell’s” soldiers were killed by “The Terrorist , Fascist, Apartheid, War Criminal, Liar, Conspirator, Genocidal Zionist 🐖 🐷 🐖 🐗 of Isra-helli Army Tank,” and went straight to hell to stay, rot and burn forever, in a friendly fire incident in Gaza's Jabalia on May 15. Tens of thousands of Palestinians have fled Jabalia after Israel relaunched an assault on the town last

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Pro-Palestine 🇵🇸 demonstrators gathered to protest Google's Project Nimbus, blocking an entrance to the Google 1/0 conference in Mountain View in the US State of California on May 14. Conference attendees were redirected to a different entrance while the protest continued. Project Nimbus is a controversial $1.2 Billion Al and Cloud computing contract between Google, Amazon and “The Terrorist , Fascist, Apartheid, War Criminal, Liar, Conspirator, Genocidal and the Illegal Regime of the Zionist 🐖 🐷 🐖 🐗 Isra-helli” Government.

The system can collect all data sources provided by “The Terrorist , Fascist, Apartheid, War Criminal, Liar, Conspirator, Genocidal and the Illegal Regime of the Zionist 🐖 🐷 🐖 🐗 Isra-hell” and Its War Criminal Military, including databases, resources, and even live observation sources such as street and drone cameras. Critics argue that the project could help “The Terrorist , Fascist, Apartheid, War Criminal, Liar, Conspirator, Genocidal and the Illegal Regime of the Zionist 🐖 🐷 🐖 🐗 Isra-hell” continue its occupation of Palestinian territories and segregation of the Palestinian people.

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Police tear down tents on UCLA’s Campus, Los Angeles, CA, on May 2, 2024. Photo: Jason Armond/Los Angeles Times via Getty

They Used to Say Arabs Can’t Have Democracy Because It’d Be Bad For “The Terrorist, Fascist, Apartheid, War Criminal, Liar, Conspirator, The Illegal Regime of The Zionist 🐖 🐷 🐖 🐗 Isra-hell.” Now “The War Criminal, Complicit in Genocide in Gaza, The U.S. Can’t Have It Either.”

On Campus, Inside the Capitol, and in Court, There’s an All-out Assault on American Democracy in the Name of “The Terrorist, Fascist, Apartheid, War Criminal, Liar, Conspirator, The Illegal Regime of The Zionist 🐖 🐷 🐖 🐗 Isra-hell.”.

— Murtaza Hussain | May 8 2024 | The Intercept

There’s An Adage among observers of American Middle East policy that suggests the Arab world can’t have democracy because it would be bad for Israel. Arab publics favor the Palestinians, the thinking goes, and will vote in governments that act accordingly — and that is a no-go zone.

Now, with discontent in the U.S. boiling over amid Israel’s war on the Gaza Strip, the framing might need a small update: The U.S., it seems, can’t have democracy either, lest an American democracy end its support for everything and anything Israel wants to do to the Palestinians.

Recent weeks saw violent crackdowns on protests, the passage of bills severely curtailing American free speech rights, and lawsuits seeking to effectively outlaw student groups hostile to Israel.

A serious red line has been crossed: America’s democratic freedoms, expansive on paper, will simply not tolerate serious dissent on the U.S.–Israel relationship. As criticisms of Israel have become more mainstream, the attempt to shut them down entirely has become more extreme.

“Pro-The Terrorist, Fascist, Apartheid, War Criminal, Liar, Conspirator, The Illegal Regime of The Zionist 🐖 🐷 🐖 🐗 Isra-hell Forces” in the U.S. are attacking our own democratic freedoms in order to suppress public outcry about apartheid and potential genocide 6,000 miles away.

In pursuit of this blank-check relationship with an Israeli government that is becoming ever-more intransigent with each passing year, pro-Israel forces in the U.S. are attacking our own democratic freedoms in order to suppress public outcry about apartheid and potential genocide 6,000 miles away. And, if the recent campus crackdowns are any indication, these forces are winning their battle.

With tens of thousands of Palestinians left dead and the Israeli assault on Gaza ongoing, the U.S. protests targeting university ties with Israel over the last month — voluble and outspoken — have been overwhelmingly nonviolent.

Yet these nonviolent protests have met with the full brutal force of the U.S. security state. Dispersing the protest encampments, police have viciously beaten protesters, fired rubber bullets, and enveloped students in dense clouds of tear gas.

Much of the focus has been on the crackdown in New York City, where Columbia University students established the first major encampment the day its president testified at a House antisemitism hearing — but these incredible scenes of police attacking students have played out across the country. By recent count, over 2,300 people have been arrested on campuses in the U.S. since April 18.

It’s not the Middle East, but it is the same anti-democratic suppression of dissent. And one could be forgiven for noting that the crackdown sometimes resembles the suppression in dictatorships like Egypt, Jordan, and Bahrain.

In one stateside case, the squashing of a campus protest even involved what could be called “baltagiya”: the signature Egyptian tactic where unofficial state-aligned militias armed with clubs attack demonstrators before the police swoop in.

This wasn’t, however, Cairo in 2011. It was Los Angeles. At the University of California, Los Angeles, a pro-Israel mob videotaped itself descending on a protest camp and brutally beating protesters, including journalists.

The violence at the UCLA raged on for three hours before police intervened to restore order. Roughly two dozen people were reportedly hospitalized for injuries. It is not clear whether the gangs that attacked the encampment were students of the school.

The following day, police came to tear down the protest camp, firing rubber bullets and arresting some of the same demonstrators who had been attacked by thugs the night before.

Anti-Democracy in D.C.

While brutal suppression is being carried out on the street level, the ground is being prepared for even more disfiguring restrictions on democratic freedoms in Washington.

Last week, the House of Representatives overwhelmingly passed a bill called the Antisemitism Awareness Act. While on its face the bill simply seeks to express Congress’s view in favor of tackling anti-Jewish bigotry, in reality its provisions would encode a controversial definition of antisemitism geared at inoculating Israel from criticism.

Drawing from the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s definition of antisemitism, the bill would categorize acts of speech as antisemitism. The IHRA definition states that “claiming that the existence of a State of Israel is a racist endeavor,” “applying double standards by requiring of it a behavior not expected or demanded of any other democratic nation”; and “drawing comparisons of contemporary Israeli policy to that of the Nazis” are all prima facie antisemitic speech.

The vague nature of these IHRA standards, including inevitable ambiguity about the definition of “double standards” regarding the state of Israel, has led the definition to be widely condemned as a Trojan horse for defining any criticism of Israel as antisemitism.

In Europe, where there is no First Amendment, the IHRA definition of antisemitism has already been widely used to criminalize speech that is critical of Israel.

The Antisemitism Awareness Act doesn’t quite go so far as to challenge the First Amendment. Instead, the bill gives the “sense of Congress” about the IHRA language. On Capitol Hill, it is a familiar technique: Resolutions that carry no criminal weight are used to mainstream language and ideas that are later used to enact more stringent statutes.

The purveyors of the Washington IHRA bill have already suggested that the legislation is, indeed, a first step toward something more concrete. “This bill has broad, bipartisan support and will begin the process of cracking down on the antisemitism we’ve seen run rampant on college campuses across America,” the lead sponsor, Rep. Mike Lawler, R-N.Y., boasted on X.

Lawler’s legislation is only one of a number of other proposed bills that would create a new congressional body to subpoena individuals over ill-defined allegations of antisemitism, criminalize and increase punishment guidelines for engaging in nonviolent protest, force federal agencies to submit lists of employees allegedly supportive of Hamas, force colleges to adopt the IHRA definition of antisemitism to receive federal funding, and bar entry or deport individuals who are even charged in connection with demonstrations deemed by authorities to be antisemitic.

Attacks on Dissent

The efforts to crush dissent on Israel aren’t limited to campuses or the halls of power in Washington. The multipronged approach is playing out everywhere: in courts, in state legislatures, and elsewhere.

In state houses, measures taken by Republican officials in states like Florida, Indiana, and Arizona have already aimed to ban the activities of pro-Palestinian activist groups on college campuses. Many of these proposals employ language that would ban funding for groups accused of antisemitism or “supporting the activities of a foreign terrorist organization,” despite criticism from educators and activists that their ambiguous language could simply outlaw any pro-Palestinian activism.

Finally, survivors and families of those slain in the October 7 attack in Israel are now filing lawsuits against the pro-Palestine activist groups.

Backed by the Big Law firm Greenberg Traurig, the plaintiffs are suing Students for Justice in Palestine and American Muslims for Palestine, accusing the groups of acting as “as collaborators and propagandists for Hamas,” demanding they pay damages to compensate for the October 7 attacks in Israel.

This sweeping crackdown on the basic rights of Americans would effectively declare public discussion of a core area of U.S. foreign policy off-limits.

SJP is one of the largest pro-Palestinian student organizations involved in the recent protests, and the lawsuit says the group is “operating and managing Hamas’s mouthpiece for North America, dedicated to sanitizing Hamas’s atrocities and normalizing its terrorism.”

Put all together, this sweeping crackdown on the basic rights of Americans to speak, organize, and freely debate would effectively declare public discussion of a core area of U.S. foreign policy off-limits.

The scenes of crackdowns on U.S. campuses have already prompted statements of concern from international human rights and civil liberties organizations that are more accustomed to condemning suppression of civil society activism in places like China and Russia.

It’s an approach that will likely become even more stringent if, as likely, and in defiance of international opinion, the Israeli government continues with its policy of annexing the West Bank or expands the present war to Lebanon.

A free and frank debate about U.S. ties with Israel in such a context is more necessary than ever. But armed with political and legal support, along with street pressure from the police and even armed agitators, it seems that holding such a debate in the U.S. may soon no longer be possible.